Category Archives: Harry Potter

Harry Potter and Naruto are two series that I love a great deal. They’re both imaginative, relatable, and full of suspense. They’re both long, they were both a part of my childhood and still are part of my life today. But the similarities run deeper than that. Let’s take a look at the similarities between the main characters (p.s. this contains spoilers):

Childhood

Death of the main character’s parents

Harry Potter series:Harry Potter’s parents, James and Lily Potter, were killed by Voldemort when Harry was only a year old.

Naruto series: Naruto Uzumaki’s parents, Minato Namikaze and Kushina Uzumaki, were killed in the process of sealing away the rampant Nine-Tailed Fox on the day of Naruto’s birth (it’s very complex but that’s the gist of it).

A mark left by the attack

HP:Harry has a lightning-bolt shaped scar on his forehead from when he withstood Voldemort’s Avada Kedavra. Voldemort also can’t touch Harry later on because Harry is protected by his mother’s sacrifice.

N:The Nine-Tailed Fox that was unleashed upon the village was sealed away inside of the newborn Naruto. As a shinobi, he is able to harness the Nine-Tailed Fox’s chakra.

Horrible upbringing

HP: Harry lived with his aunt, uncle, and cousin, the Dursleys, before he was old enough to attend Hogwarts. The Dursleys treated Harry like scum and wanted nothing to do with him, making him stay in a cupboard under the stairs. He grew up with no awareness of magic or that he was famous in the wizard world.

N: Naruto grew up completely alone. He was shunned in Konohagakure (known as the Hidden Leaf Village in the dubbed anime) because everyone feared the Nine-Tailed Fox inside of him. Naruto didn’t know why no one would talk to him, and misbehaved, causing people to hate him even more.

Discovering their true powers through rage

HP: Mysterious things happen when Harry gets angry. This is when he first notices that he can do magic, but he can’t control it at all yet.

N: The Nine-Tailed Fox’s chakra kicks in when Naruto is in a dangerous situation, or when he gets mad because somebody hurts his friends (see: the Zabuza arc, the first time training with Jiraya).

Adolescence

Friends

HP: Initially has none. Makes friends with Ron Weasley, a goofball and Hermione Granger, a know-it-all bookworm. Harry makes friends with a ton of people at Hogwarts also.

N: Initially has none. Assigned to be teammates with Sasuke Uchiha, a cool guy and an excellent ninja, and Sakura Haruno, a know-it-all book-smart girl. Becomes friends with the Rookie 9 plus Lee, Neji, Tenten, Konohamaru and company, Gaara, Temari, and Kankuro, and other random people that they meet (like my personal favorite, Sumaru).

The similarities here are the know-it-all close female friend and the making tons of friends because of having a magnetic personality…also, perhaps you could say the way that Ron and Hermione end up together: Sakura has a crush on Sasuke, and we don’t know how exactly it’s going to end yet (But it should be noted that Ron and Sasuke are nothing alike).

Popularity

HP: Famous in the wizard world, and pretty much everyone loves him before they have even met him.

Yes, this picture pretty much says what I need to say.

N: Famous in Konoha, but, um, everyone really hates him and shuns him. BUT after he saves the village…he’s a hero!

Umm…ok, I don’t know when this happens, it’s in the anime…so… yeah.

Mentors

The Wise, Old Leader That Dies And It’s Tragic

HP:Albus Dumbledore – leader of Hogwarts

N:The Third Hokage (Hiruzen Sarutobi) – leader of Konoha

The Aloof One – But Really Cares About The Kids And Is Passionate When It Comes To Things That Matter

N:Kakashi Hatake (for passion, see: Make Out Paradise) (just kidding but not really) (see: really any time Kakashi’s in a fight, like the Zabuza arc or when Itachi first appears)

AND they both have crazy hair!

The Slightly Crazy Father Figure Who Is Actually The Kid’s Godfather And Very Powerful In His Respective Universe That Again Dies And It’s Tragic

HP:Sirius Black (Ok, so Sirius himself isn’t that crazy, but his circumstances)

N: Jiraiya (the Pervy Sage…that pretty much says it all)

The thing with the popsicles is just so cute.

The Plot

A coming of age story

HP:The series begins when Harry is 11 years old, and ends when Harry is 17 (not including the epilogue).

D’awww

N: This series begins when Naruto is 12, and we don’t know the ending yet, but right now he should be about 16 or 17, since he was away for 3 years starting at (probably) age 13, and it’s been a while since then.

Bad guys

Big Boss

HP:Voldemort

N: Orochimaru (Part I), Madara/Obito (Part II)

Interesting how Voldemort and Orochimaru both have a thing for snakes. They’re also both totally freaky.

Flunkies

HP:Death Eaters

N:Akatsuki

Little Bully

HP: Draco Malfoy (he has a good guy/bad guy complex in the end)

N:Sasuke Uchiha (he ALSO has a good guy/bad guy complex in the middle/end(???))

Both of them are widely regarded as good looking and also are generally among the most proficient students. Also it’s interesting how Harry himself is more like Sasuke than like Naruto in certain ways – for one, Harry is a parseltongue (he can talk to snakes) and Sasuke can summon snakes. But Sasuke is also a bit like Malfoy, with the way Sasuke’s always calling Naruto a loser in Part I…

“The Chosen One”

HP:Harry is the only one who can stop Voldemort. As such, the Death Eaters and Voldemort always try to stop him…

There is nothing greater than this .gif

N:Naruto is the vessel (“jinchuuriki” if you will) that contains the Nine-Tailed Fox spirit. The plot of Part II/Shippuden is essentially “find Naruto to get the Nine-Tailed Fox.”

Values

HP:Protect the people you love, loneliness, good triumphs over evil, friendship, working together (see: Dumbledore’s Army)

Literally, see it! You see it, right here!?

N: “I never go back on a promise!” (“Cause that’s my nindo! MY NINJA WAY!” Admit it, you read it in his voice), also, protect the people you love, loneliness, good triumphs over evil, friendship, working together (see: Allied Shinobi Forces)

The themes of “friendship” and “working together” play huge roles in these series.

So, what do you think? Naruto and Harry Potter are pretty similar…surprising, right? Not like fall out of your chair surprising, because it’s mostly because of allegories and tropes and stuff, but maybe enough to make Harry Potter fans at least try Naruto. And if there are Naruto fans who haven’t tried Harry Potter, they must live under a rock or something.

As any Harry Potter fan would know, July 31 was Harry’s birthday! And in proper fashion, Stosh, K-Tosh, and I celebrated it with a replica of the cake that Hagrid made for Harry on his eleventh birthday! It was a basic chocolate cake with pink icing and green writing. In the book, the message on the cake is spelled correctly, but we had a little fun with it and misspelled it just like the movie did.

It was simply delicious, and, yes, we did eat some for breakfast the next morning!

On July 31, Stosh, K-Tosh, and I got together celebrate Harry Potter’s and J.K Rowling’s birthday! We had a good ol’ time watching the first Harry Potter movie, playing Scene It (I came out with the win this time), enjoying the Hogwarts House colors decorations, eating a replica of Harry’s 11th Birthday cake (another post and pictures are soon to come!), and, to my reluctance, watching A Very Potter Musical.

Stosh had seen the fan-made phenomenon before and wanted to make K-Tosh and me fans as well. I can’t speak for K-Tosh, but it left me with mixed feelings. I heard a lot of big talk about the musical from our other friends but I always had hesitation toward actually sitting down and watching it. The thing is that I have the utmost respect for the entire Harry Potter series. J.K Rowling is basically a goddess and a complete genius for creating a world with such rich and creative detail. Also the fact that she can perfectly connect the whole series over seven books is overly impressive. I love her writing and wit and nothing could possibly refute my love for her written masterpiece or its characters. Because I respect the series so much and I didn’t want its beauty tarnished, and I was afraid to watch A Very Potter Musical.

Overall, it was ok. Apart from Harry Potter, as a production standing alone, it was good. The content for the most part was funny, the music and songs were pretty good, and it wasn’t boring. (I’ll admit the Quirrell- Voldemort relationship was pretty funny). I think Starkid (the theater group) did the best they could do with limited resources and effects. I was entertained.

As a Harry Potter fan, however, I was put very close to the edge. At parts I was cringing. Whenever Ginny came on stage and spoke, I wanted to shake the actress by the shoulders and ask her: “WHAT ARE YOU DOING TO ONE OF THE BEST CHARACTERS!?!” But I kept my composure. Stosh kept reminding me that the members of Starkid were all Harry Potter fans and that they were performing out of enjoyment of the greatest series of all time instead of poking fun of it. I guess it’s the type of fandom between Starkid and myself that is different. They have pure enjoyment with Harry Potter and I have pure respect for Harry Potter. I know the overdone characters are what makes the production funny but I had a hard time with it. I think if I had no idea what Harry Potter was, I would have enjoyed A Very Potter Musical much more.

Don’t just take my word for it! Judge for yourself! Here’s act 1 part 1 of the musical.

I’ve been noticing a lot of music videos starring the Harry Potter actors lately, so I thought I would share some of them with you.

I know I’ve already posted this first one on the blog, but here it is again. This is Rupert Grint in Ed Sheeran’s Lego House:

Rupert Grint played Ronald Weasley in the Harry Potter franchise. In the music video, he plays some sort of Ed Sheeran lookalike/stalker. I actually liked the video. I am a little bit of an Ed Sheeran fan, and I really liked the concept of the video. The stalker twist is pretty amusing, not to mention the comments from our beloved Potterhead:

“This video is the period of time when Ron leaves Harry and Hermione in the 7th book. 0_0” and “Guys, enough with the Harry Potter jokes now, I’m Sirius.”

This next one is called Out of the Game by Rufus Wainwright starring Helena Bonham Carter:

In this video, Helena (a.k.a. Bellatrix Lestrange) plays an uptight librarian slowly losing her mind. I loved this video. The song is great and, as usual, Helena is AMAZING. I’m a huge fan of her’s; she’s such a versatile actress and this video is right up her alley.

The following video is Matthew Lewis in the Filth music video by Band of Buriers. Watch with caution, it gets kind of weird near the end:

Now this one is a bit more obscure. Matthew Lewis (Neville Longbottom) shares the screen with Lily Loveless, commonly known for her role as Naomi Campbell on Skins. The two are portrayed as a couple who spend a lot of the video fighting, while at the same time, they are passing around this bone wrapped in a shirt. In the beginning of the video, Lily is drawing an arm, so it’s safe to assume that the bone came from someone’s arm. The bone could represent a past lover, child, or someone else that Lily may have lost in the past. Matt gets rid of the bone, which leaves Lily in a frenzy. In the end, he cuts off his own arm and gives her a new bone. The bone seems to represent Lily’s inability to let go of the past, which kills her present relationships. Or maybe it’s just a creepy thing they like to have in their house…?

Here’s a Florence + The Machine song called Never Let Me Go. This video stars Jamie Campbell Bower, who played Gellert Grindelwald.

This next one is called Say You Don’t Want It by One Night Only and features Emma Watson (Hermione Granger):

This one was personally my least favorite, just because the song gets on my nerves. But Emma looks good and the puppies are adorable.

This one is In Demand by Texas and it’s somewhat older than the other videos. Basically, the only reason I like this one is because Alan Rickman (Severus Snape) is in it, and Alan Rickman is the definition of talent.

10 points to Slytherin?

I saved the best for last. This one my absolute favorite; I think its kind of hilarious. It’s called Beginners and it’s by Snow Club. It features the one and only Daniel Radcliffe (a.k.a. DanRad, D-Rad, or Harry Potter):

Last night at 11:59 pm, I logged onto Facebook and saw something J.Coco had posted on my wall. It said, “A year ago today we all met up to witness the end of an era. We were preparing to watch the end of Harry Potter. I was never ready then and I still am not.”

I hadn’t even realized it had been one whole year since Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part Two was released. Yesterday was already an awful day, and this realization made it one hundred times worse. It was now 12:00 am on July 15th. I remember precisely where I was and what I was doing exactly one year earlier. I was sitting in a movie theater with my friends, all dressed up in crazy Harry Potter themed costumes of course, watching the beginning of the end. It was one of the happiest and saddest days of my life.

***Just a warning, this entire post is going to be extremely cheesy and melodramatic. I tend to get overly emotional when I talk about Harry Potter. Anyways…

To be honest, I haven’t been a Potterhead for very long, at least not as long as most other Potterheads. In fact, I used to hate Harry Potter when I was in elementary school. I remember in first or second grade, everyone was reading the books and for some reason, it made me really angry. I thought it was some sort of crazy, annoying fad. Being a young, first grade hipster, I claimed that books like Guardians of Ga’Hoole and Deltora Quest were far superior, but you’ve probably never heard of them. Actually, the real reason I hated Harry Potter was because my disgusting grade school nemesis loved them. Even now, I can’t look back at my nemesis without cringing. I wont’ mention any names, but even as a first grader, he was an arrogant, know-it-all smart alec and I hated him for it. He loved Harry Potter, and he even looked like Harry a little bit. Nonetheless, I saw the first movie when it came out in theaters. Now, not only did I hate the books, I hated Harry himself. I thought that Harry was arrogant and full of it just like my nemesis was. I was so blinded by their similarities that I wouldn’t even give myself a chance to like the books.

This all changed when I moved away from my hometown. By that point, I had watched the first three movies and I did rather enjoy them, even though I still disliked Harry. A family friend had bought me a copy of Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, which had just been released, as a present. Being an avid reader, I decided to just go ahead and read them all. Obviously, I couldn’t let a perfectly good book go to waste. So by the time I was ready to start a new year at a new school, I was ready to read Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone. I was in the fifth grade, and life at my new school was rough, like really rough. I hated going to school. It was too big and I couldn’t make any new friends until very late in the year. I spent most of recess sitting by myself and reading — reading Harry Potter that is. I couldn’t help relating to Harry. I knew what it was like to be in a place you knew you didn’t belong. I didn’t even realize how much Harry meant to me until it was all over.

Eventually I found myself in a place I knew I belonged in. I met a group of crazy, weird people who liked me for my crazy, weird self. And on July 15th, 2011, I hosted a crazy, weird midnight showing party and bawled my eyes out through the entire movie. It was epic, to the say the least. I dressed up as Fawkes, with a homemade mask and a foam Sword of Gryffindor. J.Coco was Harry Potter and K-Tosh was a Ravenclaw student. In our group, we also had a Bellatrix, Lavender Brown, Snape, and Batman. Yes, I said Batman. Batman was my non-Potterhead friend who had a sign that said “I’m only here for the trailer”. She got hated on….hard. Anyways, July 15th was the first time I had publicly outed myself as a Potterhead. I mean, everyone knew I like Harry Potter, but not even I knew how much until that movie ended. The two hours and ten minutes I was in the movie theater were an emotional roller coaster, but now that it’s all over, I know I will never forget all the beautiful memories Harry Potter has given me.

So last night at 12:00 am, I decided to pay tribute to those memories (something I plan to do every year on July 15th), and to the movie that ended it all (who am I kidding? Harry Potter will never end!). I spent two hours and ten minutes doing only Harry Potter related things. First I watched the epilogue on YouTube and sat in a corner of my room and cried…really hard. It was kind of embarrassing. I’m glad no one else was there. I’m also glad this blog is anonymous. Then, after my eyes couldn’t produce any more tears, I decided that instead of crying about the end, I wanted to smile at the beginning. So I pulled out my copy of The Sorcerer’s Stone and read until I felt like I was going to fall asleep. I did, however, read enough to catch some early Drarry moments. At some point, I put on my Fawkes mask, so once again, I’m glad I was the only one who was there.

Here’s a really awkward picture of me wearing my Fawkes mask at the premier. Yeah, I know it should have orange feathers.

When I was starting to get sleepy, I watched the beginning of A Very Potter Sequel, because it makes me laugh and not think about sad things, like the end of Harry Potter. My two hours and ten minutes happened to end exactly at the end of To Have a Home sung by Darren Criss. And in my drowsy, borderline hysterical emotional state, I thought to myself “Wow, this is what it’s like to have a home. To know that millions of people all over the world are feeling the same things you are. To simultaneously cry at certain scenes and at the deaths of certain characters. To laugh when you think of the Weasley twins and smile when you see the Golden Trio conquering evil. To feel motivated whenever Dumbledore says anything at all and to be able to crack open a book and feel these things whenever you want. And most of all, to know that no matter how much has changed, no matter what year it is or where I am living, Harry Potter will always be there for me, and so will its fans.” Yeah, I told you it was going to be cheesy. Anyways, I just wanted to share this with whoever is reading and share my personal experience with Harry Potter and help everyone remember that we will always be there for each other, especially on days like July 15th. So here’s the video of the music and lyrics for To Have a Home from AVPS and also some things I found on Tumblr last night from fellow Potterheads:

A few weeks ago, Stosh, K-Tosh, and I got together to watch The Woman in Black. It was Daniel Radcliffe’s (or Dan Rad as we call him) first movie after Harry Potter so we had to see it. Big mistake. It seriously scared me. I couldn’t sleep alone in the dark for a week. This is no exaggeration. Oh, did I mention we watched this at noon in broad daylight? And that we lost power in the evening and overnight while I was freaking out that the Woman in Black would come find me? Yeah. It was bad. I thought it was freaking scary and was screaming at every opportunity. Stosh was spooked too but she was much more wise than I by not looking at the screen and distracting herself when the scary stuff happened. Although, she did have a startling run-in with the popcorn bowl. K-Tosh was amused not only by the movie but also by Stosh and my behaviors. We were disappointed by the ending, me especially, but the festivities were over and Stosh and K-Tosh had to leave. Soon after, my sister came down stairs and wanted to know who was screaming constantly. That was me. Anyway, while I was lying awake in bed scared to death that the Woman in Black would hunt me down (in complete darkness with no power), I compiled a list of reasons why she wouldn’t get me. Mind you, I was scared out of my mind and some of these will sound absolutely ridiculous.

1. THE WOMAN IN BLACK IS FICTIONAL. Someone made her up just to put on shows and make this movie and scare people. Whoever made her up is completely sick and she is just a part of their imagination. It’s just a movie.

2. THIS HAPPENED A HUNDRED YEARS AGO. The plot takes place in the early 1900s and there is a good chance by now that she has moved on from killing people. She might have gotten over it or refined her methods to not killing. My luck probably improved immensely in the last 100 years.

3. THIS OCCURS IN LONDON, ENGLAND. I live very far away from England and she wouldn’t come all the way to the U.S just to find me. Besides, she usually doesn’t leave her little town or the house she lives in. Not to mention that there is a huge ocean to cross and many more cities on the east coast to hit before coming to the Midwest.

4. SHE ONLY BOTHERS YOU IF YOU BOTHER HER. As I have never been to England or anywhere near her marsh, I think it’s safe to say that I haven’t bothered her. Which means she shouldn’t bother me. Hopefully.

5. SHE ONLY KILLS CHILDREN. As I’m not exactly a child anymore, but not an adult either, I’m hoping this will confuse her and she won’t get me. In the movie you only see her go after a handful of children, all of whom looked under the age of thirteen. So she wouldn’t waste her time on me.

6. EVEN IF SHE DID EXIST, THERE WOULD BE THE SAME CHANCE OF HER GETTING ME TOMORROW AS THERE WAS FIVE YEARS AGO. Wow, that was a mouthful. But it’s true. If I’ve sneaked by her for almost seventeen years, what are the odds that she’ll get me now? Very slim. Or at least that’s what I want to believe.

7. EVEN IF SHE DID COME TO KILL ME, SLEEPING WITH ONE EYE OPEN AND HAVING ALL THE LIGHTS ON WOULDN’T STOP HER ANYWAY. This is the sad truth. Oh well, it was a good life even if it was short. I’ll go out with my head held high.

I’m kind of amazed that I’ve never seen this video considering I love Ellen and I’m a HUGE Harry Potter fan. Sure, the video’s a bit old but Ellen’s hilarious and you get to see some cool Harry Potter stuff.
– J. Coco